SEBRING, Fla. – Local drug kingpin Miguel Angel Molina-Etchechury, the man suspected of killing 22-year-old Jonathan Diaz in 2018, is back in Highlands County to face first-degree murder charges.
Molina-Etchechury, 31, was arrested on federal drug charges on March 29, 2019, at the conclusion of a months-long investigation into an international drug-smuggling ring.
That same day, Diaz’s body was discovered buried in the backyard of a home at 117 Longview Road in Sebring.
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“Molina-Etchechury was recently sentenced to 11 years in federal prison on those drug charges and extradited from Texas to the Highlands County Jail, where he was booked in yesterday (Tuesday, Feb. 21) on charges of second-degree murder, abuse of a human body, tampering with evidence and violation of probation,” said Highlands County Sheriff’s Office.
The investigation revealed Diaz was killed in December of 2018 in the garage of Molina-Etchechury’s home at 5003 Manatee Drive in retaliation for a debt of several thousand dollars he owed to the drug trafficking organization.
Molina-Etchechury was the local kingpin of the trafficking operation and the investigation determined he beat Diaz to death over the debt.
Molina-Etchechury was the main suspect in the murder at the time of his arrest on the federal drug charges.
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The forensic evidence collected at the murder scene and from Diaz’s body was analyzed and proved to be enough probable cause for the murder charge, and an arrest warrant was obtained in August 2019. Since Molina-Etchechury was already in federal custody, the warrant was not served until his federal trial was over.
The seven-month-long investigation into the drug trafficking organization began in August 2018 and involved the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
It revealed that Molina-Etchechury was a multi-pound distributor of methamphetamine in Highlands County and was directly linked to an international drug trafficking organization originating in Mexico. Molina-Etchechury was responsible for bringing up to 13 kilograms (28.66 pounds) of methamphetamine a week — with a street value of almost $975,000 — to Highlands County and the south-central Florida area. Eight other arrests were made locally in 2018 and 2019 in connection with the drug investigation.
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